Tim Godfrey's (senior-English) Philadelphia accent is immediately recognizable as he begins to talk about his newest creation, the play that he has named That Night. At 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, That Night will be shown in Forum 111, the lecture hall that has become a sort of romp room for the young talents of Penn State's No Refund Theatre.

A native of the city of brotherly love, Tim Godfrey had to get used to long and torturous Greyhound bus rides to see his family on holidays. The four-hour trips, however, paid off. No, he wasn't refunded for the price of a ticket due to a tragic accident or any other imaginable Greyhound mishap. It paid off in the way of creative inspiration.

One night, as he rode silently back to his hometown, surrounded by strangers, he wondered what would happen if someone he used to know coincidentally boarded the vehicle that faithfully ushered him to the doorstep of his childhood. And so goes the biography of NRT's latest production, That Night.

The play will last about one hour. It will tell the story of characters that sprung purely from the imagination of Godfrey.

The cast is made up of six young actors, who were chosen because of their resemblance to the faces that had previously existed only in Godfrey's mind. And because of their acting abilities — of course.

The play is about Caroline and Mark, an engaged couple who had a "messy split-up," Godfrey said. Things become even messier for the ex-couple when they bump into each other on a train ride, one with the intent of selling a failing business, the other making a trip home to see family.

This time, as Godfrey sat down to write That Night, his intentions were a little different. Last year, he wrote and directed Nothing Bad Happens When You' re in the Shower, a play he describes as light and comedic. A writer since the age of nine, Godfrey has developed a kind of makeshift formula for writing. And that didn't change for That Night.

"Well, it's important to know what's going to happen before you start to write. Because if you don't, you don't know where you're going, or how you're going to get there," Godfrey said as he described his process of writing. Clad in a flannel shirt and jeans, he shifted to the edge of his seat as he elaborated on the topic. "I let it bounce around in my head, and I let it develop. I figure out the plot first, I create the characters around that, then I figure out the scenes, and then I write."

What did change for Godfrey as he sat down to write That Night, which took more than three months to complete, was the final product.

"It's important for art to mean something," said Godfrey, adding that That Night is a reflection of his growth and development as a writer. "This script has a realistic viewpoint as opposed to writing, like I did before, just for gags and laughs. I like how real it (That Night) is. I can see it happening, it feels like an actual event," Godfrey said.

Going beyond the situational humor that comes naturally to him, Godfrey said his newest piece explores problems of miscommunication. "Both characters have issues. Miscommunication is why they can't work things out," Godfrey said. Shifting from the realm of fiction to reality, he added, "We don't always say what we think or want."

Despite the underlying messages in the script, Godfrey admits that his sense of humor still shines through on the stage. "I guess I inherited that from my father. He was always poking fun of something, always the one at Thanksgiving or Christmas that had the new joke."

In the last script he wrote, he drew on characters he encountered in every day life. "I used to work in a school supply warehouse, and my manager, Charlie, was an old army recruit. He was always shouting orders. In my play, I wrote in this character that was inspired by him. He was a landlord and lived out his army days through watching old John Wayne movies."

Godfrey cannot pinpoint where his urgent need to write comes from. Although his parents were always supportive of his dabbling in the arts, it wasn't until he arrived at Penn State that his talent was truly nourished.

He said that he would never forget English 50 and the professor who taught it, Gabe Welsh. "He told me how realistic my dialogues sounded."

No matter how much positive feedback he gets, whether it be from professors or friends who still recite lines from Nothing Bad Happens When You're in the Shower, Godfrey still gets nervous when the curtains go up. "That's me up there on the stage. It's a part of me, it's my thoughts, it my viewpoints."

Directing, he said, is an extension of writing. "There is only so much you can do with a pencil and paper."

Nate Shupenko (junior-film and video), who plays Mark in That Night, is attracted to the play because it is original. "It's very modern, very generational, very pop culture-esque. It's a good story, but something that you would hope would never happen to you," Shupenko said.

The confidence that Godfrey has in the actors he chose goes both ways. "He's (Godfrey) got a firm handle on everything he writes. He's also a really good writer, but he take suggestions from us," Shupenko said.

Taking suggestions from actors is something that most playwrights and directors, Shupenko said, have difficulty doing.

Godfrey said he's become a better writer because of his flexible approach to the script.

In December, NRT will lose a valuable member as Godfrey graduates from the microcosm of Penn State. But the rest of the world, Godfrey hopes, will be introduced shortly to his talents.

Right now, Godfrey is researching funding for independent films. And if all goes as planned, his biography will read something like Kevin Smith's, the writer and director behind a rash of hits, beginning with Mallrats and Clerks and continuing with his latest, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Godfrey intends to find funding for That Night, adapting it for the screen. He looks forward to the freedom the movie industry will provide. On small stages like the one in the Forum, Godfrey feels like there's limits on his work.

"There's some things that you can't do with a play. In a movie, the characters can actually be on a train," Godfrey said.

If his life doesn't end up reading quite like Smith's, Godfrey won't be disappointed. As long he writes, he said, he will be happy. Godfrey laughed, a little smirk stretching across his face as he summed up his long term goals: "I'm just trying to find my niche."